Kiting Europe

[Dropbear]

Nice pics!

Looks like a wilderness to me. And that image of the Plaine Morte - it looks PERFECT for kiting!

The extended expedition idea is awesome, though I won't have the gear for that personally, I'll have to wait to see if they've got anything like that planned at Kandersteg.

[SoutherlyBuster]

Hey Sand err um Snow Yeti, those places of you and your wife look like they are really hard to take. Thanks for sharing. But I see what you mean with avalanche risk, got to know what your are doing.

[Sand-Yeti]

I've made a real pig's ear of trying to put on some pics & am very sorry about that.

Mountaineering like any sport has to be learned even if self taught. The more you do it, the more you push yourself as to what you can do & that's why even very experienced mountaineers get the chop occasionally.

The same is for kite buggying here in the desert. I have been playing this game well over 10 years and like to think I'm pretty experienced at it but in March of this year an OBE left me with a badly smashed wrist that required surgery and a member of the Titanium Club.

The Easter tour as mentioned above was a very pleasant & relatively safe journey. The longest day was 12 hours on the second day when we left the Wildhorn hut, ascended the Wildhorn & then skiied down to the Wildstrubel hut.

Climbing every weekend end at that time kept me fit, so that I knew that physically I could do it without problems.

I have had much tougher ordeals like two days trying to climb the Schreckhorn. We got within 50 metres of the 4078 m summit but turned back due to the rotten ice we were on was very dodgy as it was about to ready to collapse.

The Schreckhorn is the highet peak in canton Bern & stands close to the popular tourist resort of Grindlewald.

On that second day which was a Sunday we were on the go for 19 hours. Of course I had to be at work on the following day at 7 a.m. Needless to say I didn't perform at my best that day.

[Goz]

Don't be to hard on yourself Mr. Yeti, you have done well.

Some very nice photos of some great locations.

Makes me want to go snow kiting there as well.

[Dropbear]

Reports are from Switzerland that there's no kiteable snow and fine weather predicted for the next week

Oh and as predicted, the Wildstrubelhutte is closed until February.

So the only option for kiting this early December is a day trip up to Plaine Morte. Still, that's a better option for snowkiting than Sydney at the moment

[Dropbear]

I'm now at Changi airport waiting for my flight to Switzerland

Kandersteg tomorrow night, then probably hitting the road (or more specifically the tracks).

A question for Sand Yeti and anyone else who could help answer it - as there's no snow for kiting, and I'll be travelling around the country on the trains (or post buses etc...) and staying at hostels, can you recommend any smaller towns with good scenic options like walking trails or even lakes where I could rent a kayak? The sort of place where I could explore for a day or two from the one hostel before moving on to someplace else?

I'm interested in getting off the beaten trail somewhat, perhaps away from ski resorts considering I would likely be visiting a few of these later in the season when they're snowcovered. I'll be armed with a "Swiss Flexi Pass" - probably for 5 travel days in the month, so every couple of days I can move around instead of travelling every single day.

[Sand-Yeti]

Well Mr. Dropbear you will be in Kandesteg tonight: makes me feel homesick sitting here in my Dubai office.

There's plenty of lakes but never been kayaking on one & no nothing about hiring boats on them. All I ever did on the water was a few trips on the large paddle steamers. My company would organise boat tours on the lakes, which was like a big office party moving on the water. Usually everyone drank too much so you can imagine what that was like.

Things to do?? Well I used to climb mountains but when I get home, I always go hiking and because I'm not fit anymore keep to Fribourger Pre-Alps close to my farm in Tatroz, which is a small village just over 2 kms from Châtel-St-Denis . The Pre Alps in this area are limestone hills with peaks sitting around 2000 m. Good to visit this time of the year. I normally visit nearby hills like Teysechaux, Moleson, & Dent Lyss, that have rough tracks up & down them but with some easy scrambling in places. You just have to be careful you don't fall off the narrow paths that are on many of the ridges. That happens sometimes mainly with inexperienced tourists who don't wear appropriate footwear or figure the can pick edeweiss or gentians on or below the edge of a steep drop etc.

However, being Bernese I am biased and there we call the Pre-Alpes, die Voralpen also sitting around 2000m. From Bern you can take a post bus to places like Wasserscheide & hike up hills like the Gantrisch, which is very popular but a very pleasant hike. I did a lot of climbing in the Voralpen on the limestone faces but most of these hills have a footpath of sorts up them.

See :http://www.myswissalps.com/berneseoberland/berneseoberland-attractions.asp?lang=EN#stockhorn

That shows lots of places to visit in canton Bern.

Forget about shopping in Interlaken, that's real tourist trap.

From the list, you can start a nice hike into the Gasterntal from Kandersteg. We would climb out of the Gasterntal to the Lötschenpass & if we felt really fit would hike up the Hockenhorn for good measure then descend into the Valais, then take the train back to Bern. That makes for a long day though.

Everywhere you look when you get up high is panoramic and a popular bus ride is to take in the three passes (Susten pass , Furka pass & Grimsel pass). I would recommend that (no hiking) to see some nice scenery.

A popular ride in Bern is the rack & pinion railway from Grindlewald Grund, Kleine Scheidegg then on to the Jungfraujoch. (highest railway station in Europe). Not much to do up there except look down the Aletsch glacier. They have some easy boring skiing for tourists and even huskies pulling tourist around the small area on sledges etc. but it's worth going into the ice palace up there. I don't know what it's like now but there was no charge when I went there many decades ago. The railway from Kleine Scheidegg runs through a tunnel bored through the Eiger. You can get out of the train and look through the windows down the North face. I had several attempts on the face (Nordwand) & when you get to look out of the window, you will see why it's not easy to get up when the weather turns nasty, which it does very often around there. I finally climbed the Eiger from the Eastern ridge & descended the Western flank but unless you are experienced, that's not something to attempt. I also climbed the hill next to it Mönch. (I took the Mrs up that but from Jungfraujoch). Again not something to tackle unless you are with someone who knows what they are doing.

Finally, I climbed the 3rd famous peak of the Bernese trio the Jungfrau but from the Rottal Route (2 days) but descended down the normal route to the Jungfraujoch & took the train back down the hill.

Sorry this is all about my old stomping grounds but there are other beautiful places & I did a lot of climbing way over in Easten Switzerland in Graubünden. It takes almost a day to get to that large canton, so be prepared to spend a few days there. It also has some very beautiful scenery with nice peaks like the Piz Palü & Piz Bernina. The people speak Romansch (4th Swiss language) which is probably the closest thing you get to the dead language of Latin. I don't understand it but like listening to it as it as a nice sound. I also climbed close to there in te Bergell close to Italy and known as Bregaglia in italian & climbed peaks with lovely sounding names like Cima della Bondasca. I crossed over into Northern Italy and spent a couple of weeks climbing in the Brenta region of the Dolomites. It seemed there were either two dimenions there either flat or vertical. It seemed we spent most of the time on vertical walls(not always difficult) and the exposure always mindblowing.

I guess I should stop now as all this writing is making me more homesick.

Enjoy your time in Switzlerland & forgive some of the Swiss (Swiss Germans mainly) who are often somewhat sterile.

Let us know how your trip is progressing from time to time & you can make me more homesick.

[Dropbear]

Cheers for the ideas

Yep I'm in Kandersteg now. Took the scenic route from Zurich via Luzern and Interlaken - I've been that way before and new it was worth it, and besides I've done the Zurich-Bern route several times before so I know that's not very special terrain.

But anyway it was a superb day in the alps. Some clouds to start off with but it opened up to a bluebird day by 10am.

Got to Kandersteg, and despite being dead tired after 3 days of hardly any sleep (packing, flying,flying) I had a long arvo walk around town. No snow, but the frost is hugely thick in places, obviously it's not burning off each day so the ice crystals just build and build. Shallow parts of the Kander river are frozen too, as are some of the waterfalls. Snow predictions pushed back to early next week apparently.

But I'm actually quite glad there's no snow. It means I've arrived before the season has started, and to see a season in its entirity has always been a dream of mine. It's about balancing the amazement of the snowfalls and the awesomeness of the peak season with the pain as it all melts away again. Sure I'm not going to see the end of the season here, but I am quite excited to be seeing it properly begin

So I'm gonna stay at least 1 more night here, best spot to fight the jetlag. I'm thinking of hiking up to the Daubensee tomorrow so that I can see what it's like before it becomes white, that might be nice. And some research, so cheers for the suggestions. There's a Swiss girl here that is most insitent that the eastern part of the country is the best, and I haven't seen it - never been between Zurich and the border nor south of St Moritz. So going there this time would make a lot of sense.

Going up the Jungfrau is also a must do considering it's so close. I'm gonna leave that one though until I start work - there's a chance we might go up there on the job, or if that doesn't happen, it's close enough for a day trip with work buddies.

And with that I shall crash mightily.

Missing the beach already. I'm told the pool here is closed too. Bad news that.

[Sand-Yeti]

The Swiss girl (Plenty of them where you are now) stating that the Eastern Part is the best place is a bit exaggerated. I wouldn't like to say what is the best place because there are many areas which are very beautiful. It depends very much where you stand. For example I climbed the Matterhorn (normal Hörnli route) but standing on the top looking at a chain of nearby 4000'ers isn't as spectacular as looking at the Matterhorn itself from the valley. The Matterhorn is considered one the most elegant peaks in the Alps and that's why it is plastered all over chocolate boxes and and other Swiss paraphanalia.

The Eastern part (Graubünden) I'd mentioned earlier is indeed a very beautiful part of Switzerland and on that point the Swiss girl that you spoke to has obviously seen the area and no doubt that's why she made that comment. The most popular area is D1avolezza in the Engadin.

The Mrs & I climbed the Biancograt, which is a knife edge snow & ice ridge to the summit of the Piz Bernina (the only 4000 er in Graubünden, carried on across the Spallagrat , dropping down to the Rifugio Marco e Rosa on the Italian side. One night in that hut then traversed by way of the Piz Palü summit down to Diavolezza.

Some pics

Summit of Piz Palü

From Diavolezza

Looking back at the circus of climbers ascending the Piz Palü

Piz Palü

Piz Palü traverse

I have pics of the Bernina but am sure these are at home in Switzerland & I can't find them here in the UAE which is a bit annoying.

[Dropbear]

Awesome!

Ok, I'll try and head over that way.

The problem I've found is that most of the hostels are closed until closer to Christmas - opening after I start back at Kandersteg. I'm in Interlaken tonight principally becuase it's open! I'm thinking of heading up the valley slightly to Lauterbrunnen next, that valley seems quite scenic. After hearing from some Aussies at the hostel that the train up to the top of the Jungfrau costs 150CHF I think I might give it a miss - maybe work will sponsor a trip... I reckon that sort of money would be better spent on paragliding or one of the other adventurous things here.

Cheers for the suggestions

[Dropbear]

Ankle deep snow now down to 1000m, which is awesome. I've spent the past 2 days walking around the villages and forests below the Jungfrau, specifically Murren yesterday and Wengen today. Bring on the season!

I noticed in line for the pool at Interlaken had an Ozone bag so I asked him if he was a kiter, he said no, he was a paragliding instructor. Ah of course, I forgot they made those too. Anyway he suggested the Fritgen airfield as a good kiting spot, which surprised me 'cos it's at the bottom of the valley. I suppose that makes it either terrible for kiting, or great for snowkiting and great for buggying and boarding in the summer! I don't know enough about the interactions of the winds with the Swiss landscape to know the answer.